CARBONDALE, IL. — Armon Fletcher and Kavion Pippen both posted career-highs with 24 points apiece and Southern Illinois held Jackson State to 25 percent shooting in a 69-51 win at SIU Arena on Wednesday night.

The Salukis (5-4) snapped a two-game losing streak and shook off a disappointing loss to regional rival SEMO on Saturday.

“If we didn’t win tonight, I couldn’t go home,” joked SIU head coach Barry Hinson. “My wife just said, ‘if you don’t win, don’t come home tonight.’ You’ve been a jerk. I’m tired of watching you mope around. You’re not very nice. I don’t think I’m going to get Christmas gift. I thought I was going to have to sleep on the couch.”

After SEMO made a dozen threes against the Salukis, Hinson made a lineup change, going with a four-guard attack to surround Pippen, the team’s 6-foot-10 center. The move paid dividends on both ends of the floor, where Jackson State was held to 6-for-22 shooting from the perimeter, and Fletcher had his most active scoring night in and around the paint. The 6-foot-5 wing took a career-high 14 shots, grabbed seven rebounds and was 9-of-10 from the free throw line.

“I think he causes more difficulty to the other team’s four-man than he does to the other team’s perimeter player guarding him,” Hinson said. “They have to come out and guard him, they have to guard him inside. You really have to pay attention to him.”

Pippen was just too big and strong for Jackson State’s smallish front court. He made 10-of-14 shots, including a pair of rim-rattling dunks. He was also the beneficiary of some quality passes from Marcus Bartley, who led the team with seven assists.

The Tigers (3-8) were without leading scorer Chace Franklin, who missed the game with an ankle sprain. They struggled to make shots but kept the score close because they were active on the glass, grabbing 19 offensive boards.

There were eight ties and eight lead changes in the contest before Southern finally pulled away midway through the second half. Trailing, 36-35, SIU went ahead for good on a conventional three-point play by Sean Lloyd with 13:44 remaining. That was the beginning of 13-3 run. Later in the second half, Jackson State went nearly five minutes without a field goal, allowing the Salukis to push the lead to as many as 18 points.

“With no confidence, (against) a team that plays control basketball, a team that does as many change of defenses as they did tonight, I was extremely concerned coming into this game,” Hinson said. “I thought they were a good ball club. There’s only been one team to blow them out, and that’s Louisiana Tech.”

Southern won despite an off-night shooting from 3-point (3-of-13) and a season-high 19 turnovers.

“I’m kind of encouraged,” Hinson said. “We get an 18-point win and we don’t play well on the perimeter. That’s about the best we’ve guarded in a long time.”

The Salukis are still without center Thik Bol, who is recovering from knee surgery, and backup center Rudy Stradnieks missed tonight’s game with a minor injury to his shooting hand.

“We’re only nine games into the season and I’ve never dealt with this much adversity in an entire season,” Hinson said. “When we had to tell them Rudy wasn’t playing, it was kind of a slam.”

SIU continues its four-game homestand with Lamar on Sunday and North Carolina A&T on Tuesday.

“I know what everyone is saying, I get it,” Hinson said. “These are the hardest games for me as a coach. These are the hard ones — the ones everybody says you have to win.”

Box Score 

http://siusalukis.com/boxscore.aspx?id=7938&path=mbball

By Tony McDaniel, siusalukis.com

CARBONDALE, IL — Southern Illinois junior guard Sean Lloyd has taken his game to a new level this season.

The Philadelphia native is shooting 44 percent from three-point range, 42 percent from the field, and averages 11.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. If the season ended today, all of those stats would be career highs. He also has 18 assists, more than half as many as he had in all of the 2016-17 campaign.

Part of the reason for Lloyd’s success this year has been a bump in playing time. As a freshman two years ago, he played only 38 minutes, waiting patiently behind veterans like Anthony Beane, Mike Rodriguez and Leo Vincent. Last year, his playing time jumped to 26.7 minutes per game. A bigger reason for his success, however, is a work-ethic spurred on by a love for basketball.

“It was hard not playing in previous seasons,” Lloyd said. “Every day I just worked to get better and help the team get better. If I couldn’t play, I wanted to push guys like Anthony, Mike and Sean O’Brien to do their best.”

Lloyd has put in the time to improve in the offseason the last two years and the fruits of his efforts are starting to show. He credits much of his growth to former teammates and the Saluki coaching staff. Rodriguez and Lloyd worked out in the gym together two summers ago. Beane helped Lloyd grow on the defensive end, and he called Beane one of the best offensive players he’s ever guarded. Lloyd also credits assistant coach Brad Autry. He called Autry one of the most energetic people he’s ever met and said that he makes people want to get better through his enthusiasm.

This summer, Lloyd and many of his Saluki teammates put in hours in the gym to work on shooting. The extra reps helped not only Lloyd, but freshman Aaron Cook, juniors Armon Fletcher and Rudy Stradnieks, and senior Jonathan Wiley. All have improved their field goal percentage from last season.

On the court, Lloyd has grown into one of the team’s best players, but according to Lloyd he is the best at another form of basketball.

“I’m the best NBA 2K18 player on the team. That’s a matter of fact,” he smiled. “My teammates have no choice to admit that I’m the best. We had a 2K tournament in the summer and I won.”

Lloyd and many of the Salukis play video games as a way to unwind while still keeping the competitive spirit flowing. NBA 2K tournaments like the one the team organized this past summer are good team-building activities.

Lloyd still has another season and a half of playing time left at SIU, but he doesn’t plan on that being the end of his basketball career. He can see himself as a coach at the collegiate or high school level. Lloyd, who majors in recreation, also hopes to open his own facility in his hometown of Philadelphia to help kids learn and practice the game of basketball.

He sees both avenues — coaching and owning a sports complex — as a way to give back to his community.

“When I was younger, that’s how I started playing,” Lloyd said. “Owning a sports complex and coaching would be a great way to give back.”

By Tom Weber – siusalukis.com

CARBONDALE, IL — SEMO built a 22-point first-half lead and then held off a late rally by Southern Illinois to win, 75-69, on Saturday night in a non-conference matchup.

The Redhawks (6-4) won for the first time at SIU Arena since 1982 behind a lethal 3-point shooting attack. Six different players made treys and 12 of their 22 field goals came from long range. Leading the barrage was sophomore guard Denzel Mahone, who scored 18 points and connected on 3-of-4 shots from outside the arc.

The Salukis (4-4) were ice cold during the first half, missing eight-straight shots from long range during one stretch as SEMO sprinted to a 37-15 lead with 3:26 remaining. SIU finally came to life with a 10-2 run to end the half, culminating with a buzzer beater by Tyler Smithpeters just a few steps past midcourt.

“I came off the floor (at halftime), especially after Tyler (Smithpeters) three, I really felt we were still going to win the ballgame,” said SIU head coach Barry Hinson.

Southern’s comeback started when Hinson pulled 6-foot-10 center Kavion Pippen from the game and went with a five-guard lineup to better defend the perimeter.

“I thought when they went small and subbed Kavion Pippen out of the game, that was a win for our team,” said SEMO head coach Rick Ray.

The Salukis had no choice because Pippen couldn’t keep up with SEMO 6-foot-7 forwards Milos Vranes and Isaiah Gable, who combined to make five 3-pointers. The Redhawks lost both of their centers during the past week when Mark Laros came down with mono and Justin Carpenter sustained a concussion in practice.

“Ball-screen pick and pop — we wanted Kavion Pippen to have to guard the 3-point line,” said Ray, explaining his strategy to offset the loss of his post players. “We asked our guys to get two more defensive rebounds than they normally get.”

Hinson said it was the first time he’s ever played a five-guard lineup.

“We were caught off-guard by their starting lineup,” he said. “We felt like (playing five guards) was the only way we could get back in the game and it later proved that it was.”

As cold as the Salukis were in the first half, they suddenly found their range in the second. Led by Aaron Cook, who finished with 18 points off the bench, SIU made 9-of-15 treys in the final 20 minutes in a frantic bid to climb out of the deep first-half hole.

Several times, Southern cut the deficit to single digits, but SEMO always had an answer. The Salukis came as close as 59-54 on a dunk by Armon Fletcher with 5:52 remaining in the contest, but Mahoney countered with a triple, and SEMO eventually pushed the lead back to 14 points with two minutes left.

“We’ve only got four guys that have played Division I college basketball,” Ray said. “We need to be able to count on (Mahoney) and depend on him in crucial situations.”

SEMO won its fourth-straight game, but Ray said this victory was different than the others.

“I’ve been on my team that we hadn’t beaten a quality ball club to this point,” he said. “We had yet to beat a sound, disciplined team. Watching film on Southern Illinois I thought they were excellent defensively and they never beat themselves.”

There were bright spots in the loss for the Salukis. Sean Lloyd had 15 points and was 3-for-3 from downtown. Marcus Bartley had six assists in his second game back from injury. They outscored the Redhawks by eight points in the second half.

“The only thing I was disappointed with was we let our offense determine how hard we played defense in the first half, and that bothered me,” Hinson said. “This isn’t one of those games where I come in here and tell you that we played bad, I think you have to give SEMO a lot of credit.”

ST. LOUIS, MO — Saint Louis closed the game on a 22-12 run during the final eight minutes to rally for a 74-69 win over Southern Illinois on Wednesday night at Chaifetz Arena.

The Billikens (4-4) snapped a four-game losing streak behind a 20-point, nine-rebound performance by freshman guard Jordan Goodwin and some timely 3-pointers late in the game by Javon Bess.

Saint Louis started the night with only seven scholarship players, as backup big man D.J. Foreman was sidelined with illness. When starting guard Davell Roby left midway through the first half, SLU played the rest of the contest with just six players. Four never left the court during the second half.

“We can’t control whether the ball goes in the hole or not, but we can control what we do next,” said SLU head coach Travis Ford. “Our team showed a lot of character when (Roby) went out.”

The Salukis (4-3) let victory slip through their fingers down the stretch but showed flashes of promise with five players scoring in double figures, led by Jonathan Wiley’s career-high 19 points.

Bolstered by the return of point guard Marcus Bartley, who scored 12 points and added three assists in his debut, Southern’s offense was clicking early. Wiley’s layup with 12:16 in the first half gave SIU its biggest lead, 18-9. SLU rallied back to take a four-point lead later in the half, but SIU closed with a 10-2 run to grab a 36-32 halftime advantage.

Bartley scored nine points in the second half — six of them coming at the charity stripe — and demonstrated why head coach Barry Hinson has been singing his praises for weeks while the SLU transfer has been sitting out with injury.

“I thought (Marcus) played exceptionally well,” said Hinson. “He tried to split a ball screen and he took probably one ill-advised three, but other than that, I think you have to look at it and say, wow.”

The game see-sawed back and forth in the second half, but Southern appeared to take control after a pair of Bartley free throws gave the Salukis a 57-52 lead with 8:21 remaining.

The Billikens hung tough, though, using a 1-3-1 zone defense that caused the Salukis difficulty and helped lead to eight second-half turnovers.

“I think one of the reasons we struggled is we couldn’t see over it,” Hinson said. “We didn’t struggle against the 1-3-1 when Marcus was in the game. We did when our tiny guards were out there. The length kind of bothered us a bit.”

Bess hit his first of two treys with 4:59 remaining to tie the game, 61-61.

The battle of big men in foul trouble was finally won by SLU freshman center Hasahn French when he fouled out Kavion Pippen with 3:25 to go and the score tied, 63-63. French, who blocked four shots on the night, came up with the biggest defensive play of the game with three minutes remaining. He stripped Bartley and took the ball coast to coast for a dunk to break the tie.

“We knew (the 1-3-1) was coming, it didn’t surprise us,” Bartley said. “We just didn’t execute and that’s on me as a point guard. We didn’t work it around fast enough. Against a 1-3-1, you have to get the ball to the corner with pace.”

Southern came up empty on its next possession and Bess hit a 3-point dagger with 2:12 to put SLU up, 68-63.

Bartley hit a deep 3-pointer with 11 seconds left to cut the deficit to 72-69, but Saint Louis made 3-of-4 free throws in the closing seconds to seal the victory.

The Billikens averaged only 57 points during their losing streak, but they moved the ball efficiently in the half court, took shots late in the shot clock, and had an impressive 17-8 assist-to-turnovers ratio.

“This is a team that hasn’t been able to score most of the year and they did tonight,” Hinson said. “I’m not surprised — the players may be — but I knew we’d see the best Saint Louis team so far. That’s the best they’ve played.”

“As coaches, we’ve been searching 24 hours a day trying to figure out what can we do to help our basketball team,” Ford said. “We knew we were better than what we were showing.”

Box Score

http://siusalukis.com/boxscore.aspx?id=7936&path=mbball

By Tom Weber – siusalukis.com

Southern Illinois resumes its regional rivalry with Saint Louis on Wednesday night with a 7 p.m. game at Chaifetz Arena that will be televised on Fox Sports Midwest. The Billikens lead the all-time series, 29-26, including a 21-12 mark at home. The Salukis, however, have won the last two meetings between the schools.

Last year in Carbondale, Southern Illinois finished the game on a 14-3 run to win, 70-55. The game marked Sean Lloyd Jr.’s first-career start and he made a clutch 3-pointer with four minutes remaining. Two years ago in St. Louis, SIU rallied from a nine-point deficit to beat Saint Louis, 65-52. Anthony Beane, led SIU with 19 points. The team committed only four turnovers and grabbed 17 offensive rebounds.

Besides the 55 games against Saint Louis, the Salukis are 10-2 against the rest of the Atlantic 10 conference. Other than the Billikens, the last time Southern played an A10 team was versus St. Bonaventure on Nov. 25, 2013 at the Gulf Coast Showcase. SBU won, 83-71, and the Salukis were led by Desmar Jackson’s 25 points.

Kavion Pippen earns second Valley Newcomer of Week award

JUCO transfer C Kavion Pippen (6-10, 240, Jr.) leads the team in scoring (13.8), field goal attempts (64), percentage (.563) and blocked shots (14). He has scored in double figures in all five games. The nephew of NBA legend Scottie Pippen was named MVC Newcomer of the Week on Nov. 12 and again on Dec. 4 after scoring a career-high 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting versus San Jose State.

Sean Lloyd Jr. with consecutive career-highs

G Sean Lloyd Jr. (6-5, 210, Jr.) posted back-to-back games with a career-high 19 points (at Murray State, vs. SIUE). He is third on the team in scoring (11.2), third in rebounding (4.2), second in assists (15) and steals (9).

Aaron Cook improved from three

G Aaron Cook (6-2, 185, So.) has made dramatic improvement in his 3-point shooting percentage this season and has already surpassed last season’s total makes. In 2016-17, he was 5-for-27 (.185). This season, he is 8-for-17 (.471).

Salukis lead MVC in blocked shots and steals

The Salukis lead the MVC in blocked shots (4.8) and steals (8.0). They are also third in 3-point field goal defense (28.6), which ranks 28th in the nation. In the last two games, Southern’s opponents are 7-for-36 (.194) from 3-point range.

Eric McGill makes instant impact

G Eric McGill (6-2, 175, Jr.) is another juco transfer making an immediate impact for Saluki Basketball. He is the top sub off the bench, averaging 7.0 points, and leads the team with eight 3-pointers and 14 steals. He’s coming off a five-steal game vs. San Jose State.

Dawg Bites

•The road game at Saint Louis will be the team’s last true road game until MVC play starts at Northern Iowa on Dec. 28.
•The Salukis have won their last two games by an average margin of 22.5
•G Marcus Bartley (6-5, 193, Jr.) was cleared to practice on Dec. 4 and is expected to play off the bench versus Saint Louis. He was diagnosed with a broken bone in his right wrist on Oct. 25.
•F Thik Bol (6-8, 202, Sr.) had knee surgery on Nov. 3 and is not expected to return until late December.
•SIU has gone 88-consecutive games with at least one 3-point field goal and 996-consecutive games with at least one free throw (dating back to 1986).
•Hinson is 44-34 overall in non-conference games at SIU
•The Saint Louis game will be G Tyler Smithpeters 100th career game.

Head Coach Barry Hinson met with the media on Tuesday afternoon.

So SLU, how nice is it to play somebody who doesn’t have as many players as you?
I think we do have about the same amount, but I think SLU has a little bit more. I think they at least get to practice 5-on-5, whereas we just got to practice 5-on-5 practice here in the last couple of days. We all know what a big game this is, it’s a regional rivalry. We always look forward to this game, and I know they always look forward to this game. I think we’ll have a great crowd. Our fans seem to follow this game fairly well. I’d expect we’ll have at least 1,000 fans there. I’ll be surprised if we don’t. Two road trips ago, they sold out the first game that we played there. That was when we had all those freshman, Jordan Caroline was a freshman. That was a sell-out for them, so we’re looking forward to it.

What is it about SLU that makes it a rivalry? Is it the proximity, that you played such good battles the last couple years…

Well I think that there’s several variables that go into a regional rivalry, but I think one obviously is regional. Two, that you have another Midwest powerhouse, mid-major level right in your backyard. You are competitors in the recruiting part. All our players, for the most part, have played against in summer basketball or high school basketball, so the rosters are really familiar to each one and the staff are really familiar because we recruit the same players. I’d say, in my opinion, this is one of the better, healthier rivalries you’re going to find, and it’s never been a heated rivalry. It’s always been a healthy rivalry. I go back to playing these guys to back at Southwest Missouri, or coached at Southwest Missouri State, so this has always been a fun game for both parts.

Do you know Travis Ford well?

I know Travis; I wouldn’t say that I know him well. I try to know Travis as much as I could because he was the head coach at my alma mater. I think the world of Travis. Every time I’ve been around him, he’s been more than pleasant. I do respect him as a coach; I think he is an outstanding coach. As a player, he was something very special. Very few guys have their jerseys retired in the rafters of the building.

You had 5 or 6 guys playing as a unit in the last 10/12/14 minutes of the game as well as anything I’ve seen in a long time here.

Yeah, I think if you wanna get right down into specifics the 3:34 mark and the 3:54 mark of the last two games, we’ve played about as good of basketball as we could to those marks. Now, if you want to start at those marks, then we’ve played about the worst, but that’s to be expected. There at the end of the game like that, you have unusual lineups, but I don’t disagree with you. I think our guys, and I want to say as a unit defensively, that’s about as well as we can play. We were really guarding our tails off.

Whitey Herzog, who I’m sure you’ve met, he used to say he was a much better manager when he had a good closer.

I can tell you I’m a lot better coach because I’ve got better players. It never fails. Players win games, coaches don’t win games. Coaches win practices. Players win games, they always have and they always will. It’s our job to prepare these guys as much as we can in a practice environment, but I have very little to do with what goes on during a game. If people want to give us credit, they can give credit to those young men out on the floor.

It seems to me that there’s more pressure on you know.

Well, I don’t know about the pressure part, nobody’s going to put more pressure on me than myself. I’m about as relaxed and comfortable as I’ve been in 36 years of coaching. I think that has a lot to do with the talent level we have on the floor. I have to give a lot to our staff. They’ve done a great job; they’ve done a great job recruiting. I think this program, I don’t think, I know, we’re headed in the right direction. We’re turning the corner. That’s what they hired us to do, and that’s what we’re doing.

By Tom Weber  siusalukis.com

For the second time this season, Southern Illinois center Kavion Pippen has been named the Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Week, the league announced on Monday.

A 6-foot-10, 240-pound junior college transfer, Pippen led the Salukis to double-digit wins over SIUE and San Jose State last week. He had 13 points and 13 rebounds against the Redhawks, and followed that performance with a career-high 22 points versus the Spartans. For the week, he was 15-of-28 (.535) from the field, including 9-of-10 in the game against San Jose State. He also blocked five shots and had four steals on the week. Pippen was also named the league’s Newcomer of the Week for his performance in the season-opening win over Winthrop on Nov. 10.

The nephew of NBA legend Scottie Pippen, Kavion leads the team in scoring (13.8), field goal attempts (64), field goal percentage (.563) and blocked shots (14). He has scored in double figures in all six games. The last Saluki player to win Valley Newcomer of the Week twice in the same season was Desmar Jackson in 2012-13.

By Tom Weber,  siusalukis.com

CARBONDALE, IL — Southern Illinois used a suffocating defense to overwhelm sister school SIUE, 86-59, in a battle of in-state rivals on Wednesday night at SIU Arena.

The Salukis (3-2) improved to 9-1 all-time against the Cougars (1-5), and the 27-point landslide was the largest margin of victory in the history of the series. All five starters scored in double figures for SIU, led by Sean Lloyd’s 19 points, which matched a career high.

The outcome was never in doubt as SIU staggered the visitors with a 23-3 run to start the game. SIUE missed its first 11 shots and trailed, 30-8, after Salukis guard Eric McGill sank a 3-pointer with 5:36 left before halftime. The victory snapped a two-game losing streak and improved SIU’s record to 2-0 at home.

“When you get your butt beat two times in a row, if you don’t come out with a little bit of fire, you have a problem,” said SIU head coach Barry Hinson.

The Salukis held SIUE to 19.4 percent shooting in the first half (6-for-31), which ranks as the third-best defensive field goal percentage in a half in school history, and 29.3 percent for the game. The Cougars did end the first half on a 14-3 run to cut the deficit to 35-22 at halftime, but after trading baskets to start the second half, never came closer than 13.

 

SIU’s front-court tandem of Kavion Pippen (13 points, 13 rebounds) and Jonathan Wiley (12 points, 10 rebounds) helped Southern compile an overwhelming 44-22 advantage in points in the paint.

“Both big guys get double-doubles tonight — that’s pretty impressive — especially when Jonathan is so efficient on seven shots,” Hinson said.

The success of the bigs inside opened up the perimeter for shooters, as Southern connected on 8-of-15 tries from outside the arc. Five different players made treys and SIU shot 53 percent from both the field and from three.

“They were the aggressors and we were on our heels,” said SIUE coach Jon Harris. “We were reacting to them.”

The margin of victory could have been larger if not for big runs by SIUE at the end of both halves. The Salukis led by as many as 41 points with less than five minutes to go in the second half, before the Cougars closed the game on a 13-0 run.

“I’ll tell you another thing that motivated us — what happened to our women the other night (losing to SIUE) — we take all of that in and know how big a game this is,” Hinson said. “We have to represent our region.”

Saluki guards Aaron Cook (13 points, four assists) and Armon Fletcher (11 points, five assists) also had solid performances. Fletcher was 4-for-5 from the field and showed signs of breaking out of a recent shooting slump.

“Armon needs to defend, rebound and make uncontested open shots,” Hinson said. “Tonight was a big game — I challenged Armon personally. Me and him met one-on-one.”

The Salukis will play five of their next six games at home, beginning with Saturday’s game versus San Jose State at 3 p.m.

by Tom Weber – siusalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois hosts sister school SIUE on Wednesday night at SIU Arena in the 10th meeting between the schools. The Salukis lead the all-time series versus SIUE, 8-1, including a 4-1 mark at SIU Arena. The Cougars’ lone win in the series came in Carbondale on Dec. 9, 2015. In that game, the Cougars scored a 76-74 upset and snapped a seven-game losing streak. SIUE overcame 21 turnovers by connecting on 10-of-16 from 3-point range.

Last year, SIU beat SIUE, 101-83, at the Vadalabene Center. Sean O’Brien nearly had a triple-double with 22 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. In the first half, Southern shot 73.3 percent (22-of-30) from the field with 15 assists and two turnovers. The Salukis led by as many as 31 points.

This game will mark the 18th time Hinson has faced an Ohio Valley Conference team since becoming head coach at SIU in 2012. He has an 11-6 record in previous games, including a 4-1 mark against SIUE.

Dawg Bites
•Sixty-two percent of SIU’s point production comes from two-point baskets — that ranks fifth-highest in the nation.
•SIU has allowed 50+ points in a half in back-to-back games for the first time since December of 2000 vs. SEMO (54) and UIC (52).
•Tyler Smithpeters leads the team in free throws made (7) and attempted (10).
•Beginning with SIUE, the Salukis play six of their next seven games at home.
•G Marcus Bartley (6-5, 193, Jr.) was diagnosed with a broken bone in his right wrist on Oct. 25 and is expected to miss six weeks.
•F Thik Bol (6-8, 202, Sr.) had knee surgery on Nov. 3 and is expected to miss approximately six weeks.
•SIU has gone 86-consecutive games with at least one 3-point field goal and 994-consecutive games with at least one free throw (dating back to 1986).
•Hinson is 42-34 overall in non-conference games at SIU and 21-16 at during the month of November.
•The Salukis rank 94th in the nation in two defensive categories — blocked shots per game (4.3) and steals (7.5).

Head coach Barry Hinson met with media prior to Tuesday’s practice.

So Marcus Bartley is definitely out for this Wednesday and Saturday you think?

Neither one of the players (Bartley or Thik Bol) will play in the next two games. I think we’re still looking at the two-week mark.

Are you encouraged about getting them back? 

I thought the medical report yesterday was extremely favorable. All along, the average for Thik’s (injury) was 43 days and that could very well still be the case, and Marcus is still having some pain with some type of movement. If you remember your classes in kinesiology, I remember when I was at Oklahoma State, supination/pronation gives him a little bit of an issue with rotation, but we’ll just see. I  just go by what our medical staff tells us and they were rather excited yesterday and released them to shoot some. I think that’s really productive.

The one place where you really seem to miss Michael (Rodriguez) is late-game shot clock, what has to get better? 

I think this is one of the things, where, one, execution with guys that haven’t been in that spot very much, and we haven’t. The guys if you noticed in the last-second situations, almost every time that the two people that are involved in it that are in the shot clock plays are guys that have not played an extensive period of time. With that being said, I think it was really encouraging. I thought Aaron Cook was just outstanding and how he handled the shot clock at Murray. We just didn’t handle the end of the result of his passes very good. I think if you guys if you listen to the radio show, we had 12 missed layups and six of those were uncontested.  So you got to find a way to finish those baskets.

Armon (Fletcher) has been struggling lately or early season injury and then struggling to shoot the ball. How much is injury versus how much he just needs to improve shooting the ball?

I don’t think the injury is affecting his shooting whatsoever and that’s my opinion. I think you’d have to ask Armon for his opinion. Armon right now needs to quit worrying about offense and worry about defense and rebounding and then the game will eventually come to him. That’s one of the things that we talked about with Aaron Cook and Sean Lloyd going in the last game and we continue to talk to all of our team about, lose yourself defensively, and all the offense will take care of itself. Our defense has to get better, we’re not even close to what our defensive numbers should be and that’s certainly been an emphasis in practice. One of the reasons that we’re not shooting the ball well is we’re taking contested threes. We had 21 threes at Murray and 13 were contested.

What are opponents doing to make it difficult for Kavion Pippen to touch the ball right now?

He’s a magnet right now and until you make shots, when you’re shooting 30% from the three, no one’s going to guard you out there. When you’re shooting 6-for-8 in the game, they’re going to guard you and they’re going to make sure that you make open shots. We’re going to be zoned tomorrow night, no doubt in my mind. Actually, I’m kind of excited about it to be honest. I think that we prepared for it. I know we’ll shoot the ball much better than what we have, but we know we’re going to see some zone and we’re going to see double teams on Kavion, and that’s not just tomorrow night, that’s a bunch for the future. Until we get those two guys back in the lineup, we’re going to see that quite often.

Can you open things up by the way you screen?

We’ve got to hit shots. You don’t get the ball inside when everybody’s guarding you. We have to have guys step up and make shots and and then I think the biggest thing for us right now is to be better selected and we will. I don’t think it’s a talent issue. I think it’s an execution issue and a mental issue. That’s what I think is the result of our shooting percentage.

Daniel Kinchen is a new player for them, what stands out when you watch him on film?

What stands out is if he touches the ball he’s going to shoot it. He is a prolific scorer and has one of the best green-lights of any player I’ve seen in college basketball and we have to be cognizant of him at all times. He’s shooting over 40% from the three, a player kind of like (Jonathan) Stark and we’re going to have to do a much better job on him than what we did it at Murray State. He is a score and we gotta pay attention to him.

By Tom Weber siusalukis.com

MURRAY, KY. — Murray State exploded for 50 points in the second half to rally from a six-point deficit and beat Southern Illinois, 81-73, on Saturday night at the CFSB Center.

Jonathan Stark led the Racers (3-1) with 27 points and eight assists. The 6-foot shooting guard dominated the action during the comeback with 17 points and six assists in the second half alone.

The Salukis (2-2) led by as many as eight during the first half but were out-scored, 18-8, in the final five minutes of the game. Sean Lloyd Jr. led SIU with a career-high 19 points and Kavion Pippen added 12 for his fourth-straight game in double figures.

Southern got off to a good start defensively, limiting the Racers to 2-of-10 shooting from 3-point in the first half and holding Stark to just 10 points. MSU head coach Matt McMahon moved Stark to the point guard spot in the second half, and he kick-started an offense that shot 55 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes, including 7-of-14 treys.

“I thought Coach (Barry ) Hinson did a good job — they were throwing some junk defenses at us — and I thought we adjusted well to it,” said McMahon. “We didn’t want to get too complicated, we just wanted to put Stark in some good positions. You see his 27 points and that will get a lot of attention, but a lot of the big plays were the assists in the second half.”

Southern Illinois bounced back from a 42-point loss at Louisville earlier in the week with a much more competitive showing. All eight players contributed multiple buckets on offense, and the team had a season-low seven turnovers.

“For our basketball team, it was how would we respond after what happened at Louisville, because we just quit at Louisville,” said Hinson. “We responded tonight. I think when we get these two starters back (Thik Bol, Marcus Bartley), we have a chance to be pretty good.”

Lloyd Jr. had 12 of his points in the first half, using his 6-foot-5, 210-pound frame to overpower smaller defenders for close-in looks. He also buried a couple of 3-pointers.

Point guard Aaron Cook was the engine that drove SIU’s offense — he had eight points, four assists and just one turnover.

“I thought it was the best game he’s played so far,” Hinson said. “I was so impressed with Aaron tonight. I thought he did a great job on their point guard, and he got us into offense. Everybody else was sped up, but not Aaron.”

The game ultimately turned in Murray’s favor when Stark and Shaq Buchanan hit back-to-back triples to put MSU up, 69-65, with 3:40 to go. Southern twice cut it to two points on driving layups by Lloyd Jr., but the Racers closed the game on an 8-2 run.

“I thought we looked like a team that hadn’t played in a week, we were a little sluggish in the first half, we let the ball stick on one side of the floor too much,” McMahon said. “I thought our offensive execution in the second half was really good. We moved the ball better, got some higher quality shots from three, and guys really stepped up and delivered.”

Buchanan was 2-for-3 from downtown and 6-foot-8 forward Terrell Miller also hit a couple and scored 16 points.

“We were trying to help on Miller, and Buchanan makes two threes on us,” Hinson said. “We knew Stark was going to get his points, and we talked at halftime about how we have to do a great job on the other guys.”

After playing three of their first four games on the road, the Salukis will play six of their next seven at home.